HOUSING COMMITTEE ADVANCES ‘JUST CAUSE’ LEGISLATION, SEEKING TO PROVIDE MORE PROTECTIONS TO RENTERS

March 11, 2026

On Tuesday, the Housing Committee passed legislation requiring a “Just Cause” for evictions after a certain amount of time a tenant rents a location, expanding those protections to meet the needs of more Connecticut residents.

Current eviction laws in Connecticut allow a landlord to evict a tenant at the end of a lease at their own discretion save for certain situations where that tenant is elderly, blind or disabled. That leaves many more renters without protections, and they can suddenly find themselves thrust into housing insecurity or homelessness with little warning or recourse.

“If struggling households working to pay their bills didn’t already have enough issues, the threat of an eviction hanging over their heads only makes the affordability crisis worse for them,” said State Senator Martha Marx (D-New London), Senate Chair of the Housing Committee. “Expanding ‘Just Cause’ to cover more state residents eases the worst of that stress without harming property owners’ ability to evict in situations calling for it. Evictions still take place today for reasons beyond missing rent payments or committing crimes in a unit. We all know it. This bill helps protect tenants when their rights are at risk, and I’m excited to bring it out on the Senate floor.”

Senate Bill 257, “An Act Concerning Evictions For Cause,” would require a reason for eviction for tenants who have lived in a complex with five or more units for tenants who have rented for a year and who are in good standing. Reasons for eviction can include nonpayment of rent, nuisance behavior, noncompliance with leases or illegal activities, and the expiration of a rental agreement could also lead to eviction in certain circumstances.

The bill effectively provides residents with security in response to landlords having the ability to evict for no reason at the end of a lease period.

The new protections are not valid if a landlord didn’t issue a notice to quit during the first year of a lease or has a summary process enacted against them within 90 days of the lease ending.

• Among the most important protections “Just Cause” would enact for Connecticut residents include prevention against retaliation if a renter files a complaint about living conditions in their home or a landlord sells a property to another owner.

The bill received more than 200 testimonials in support, including by Ed Hawthorne, the President of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, who testified the bill would protect tenants from “retaliatory no-fault evictions” in an environment where no-fault evictions have nearly doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic. About 11% of all eviction filings are no-fault evictions, which Hawthorne said can come after requests for repairs, reports of unsafe conditions or neighbors organizing for better living conditions.

“Requiring justification for eviction, rather than placing the burden on renters to prove discrimination or retaliation, is a commonsense measure that protects families from housing instability,” Hawthorne said.

Kathleen Flaherty, executive director of the Connecticut Legal Rights Project, testified that protections currently available to some tenants should be expanded, especially as the bill does not target small landlords with fewer than five units.

“Expanding just cause protections to more renters will result in increased housing stability,” said Flaherty, who said the new policy could lead to a 10% drop in evictions.

The Open Communities Alliance testified that the need for Just Cause has grown in recent years and it is uniquely positioned to address the state’s continuing housing crisis, especially as other states have similar policies in place, proving the concept can find success.

With its passage through the Housing Committee today, the bill next heads to the Senate floor for further consideration.